Maria Escovedo, 80, of the East End, votes in her daughter's car with help from her daughter, at Ripley Neighborhood Centers Inc. on March 6, 2018.

Maria Escovedo, 80, of the East End, votes in her daughter's car with help from her daughter, at Ripley Neighborhood Centers Inc. on March 6, 2018.

Photo: Gabrielle Banks

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Alice Marin, right, 76, of the East End, hoped to vote on March 6, 2018. She doesn’t know if she can find a way to her new voting location. She showed up to vote in the Democratic primary at Ripley Neighborhood Centers Inc. which used to be her polling site.

David Vargas, 63, of the East End, tried to vote in the Democratic primary at Ripley Neighborhood Centers Inc. near his home but got directed to another precinct on March 6, 2018.

David Vargas, 63, of the East End, tried to vote in the Democratic primary at Ripley Neighborhood Centers Inc. near his home but got directed to another precinct on March 6, 2018.

Photo: Gabrielle Banks

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Adrian Garcia, a candidate for Harris County Commissioner, greets Maria Alanis, 78, of the East End, as she heads in to vote at Ripley Neighborhood Centers Inc. on March 6, 2018.

Adrian Garcia, a candidate for Harris County Commissioner, greets Maria Alanis, 78, of the East End, as she heads in to vote at Ripley Neighborhood Centers Inc. on March 6, 2018.

Photo: Gabrielle Banks

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Confusion on East End about voting sites

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Alice Marin showed up to vote on election day, but her plans were derailed Tuesday morning when she learned her polling location had changed.

She is one of dozens of people at the Ripley Neighborhood Centers in the East End who were directed to other polling sites, according to an election judge.

Marin, who is 76 and uses a cane, said she wanted to vote for Sylvia Garcia for U.S. Congress and the Democrat who's running for the U.S. Senate – she wasn't sure of his name -- but now she won't cast a vote.

"I don't have transportation over there, so I'm not going to vote," she said. "I can't get on a bus because of my feet and I don't drive."

Another voter expressed similar sentiment earlier in the morning, saying he had taken the bus and wouldn't be doing that again to get to his new polling site, according to poll workers. But a volunteer at the precinct offered him a ride, which he accepted, according to Jael Casiano, an election judge who saw the exchange.

Casiano said she'd witnessed a lot of frustration. One voter blurted out, "This is exactly why I don't vote," she said. Another person told the poll workers, "You guys are so disorganized."

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Casiano said 46 voters had cast ballots by 11:30 and the precinct had turned away a total of 35 voters who came to the wrong location. A handful told her they didn't think they would vote.

"People have lost interest," said Mohammad Ansari, who was handing out fliers in the parking lot for Tahir Javed, a Democratic candidate for the 29th District of the U.S. Congress. He said he'd been making phone calls to people for weeks and callers had no interest.

"They're just hanging up," he said.

Rocio Garcia, 31, who was campaigning for her brother Roel Garcia, a candidate for the 29th Congressional District, said she's been going door to door and has seen campaign materials strewn the ground near mailboxes.

"A lot of people didn't realize it's election day today," she said.

The confusion she'd seen among voters at the Neighborhood Centers further exacerbated the problem.

"My generation likes convenience, and a lot of the older people don't have access to technology so they won't know where to vote," Garcia said.

Joaquin Soraiz Jr., 70, encountered Casiano, the election judge, in the parking lot where she was assisting a curbside voter.

Soraiz, a retired welder, sat in his idling pickup truck. He said he was trying to find his voting location, since he hadn't been able to look it up online.

A few minutes later, David Vargas, 63, came down the stairs saying he, too, had come to the wrong place. He lives about four blocks away and he is unsure how to find his new polling location.

"I just wanted to vote," he said. "I'll have to find out where it is. I'm not too good with directions."

Outside the center, former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, who is running for Harris County Commissioner in Precinct 2, was greeting voters as they arrived. He said he was hopeful for a record turnout, despite snafus at some of the polling sites on the Northside where machines were reportedly not working.

"Voting is tough enough especially on election day and when you have people coming in and out you want it to be as convenient as possible," Garcia said. "And who knows if those folks who were turned away will come back this afternoon or this evening. That's always the concern we have."

Gabrielle Banks

11:18 a.m.

The line extended out through the doors of a tucked-away building at the First Baptist Church in the Heights Tuesday morning after an hour of headaches getting the voting machines going.

A poll worker at the Democratic precinct said the machines on one-half of the room were operational by 7:20 a.m., but the other side of the room wasn't up and running until nearly 8 a.m.